What's in it for me? epilogue

If I may, I'd like to respond to anonymous "j's" comment from my previous post.

Condi Rice: Right now she's in the initial puppy love phase of the relationship. Everyone loves her (or at least doesn't hate her) because she's new and she says she's bringing a fresh start to the Bush adminstration's efforts to build better relationships with Europe. It's her first outing, so my guess is the U.S. and European media won't be too hard on her. The decision to raise Bin Laden's bounty was ultimately hers, but it was a decision that had been formulating at the State Department for months, and so she just had to make the final call. It's not like she became Sec of State, sat down at her desk, picked up the telephone, and raised it to $50M. Although that would've been cool.

I agree that it will take a very long time to completely ween ourselves off of middle-eastern oil; however, the impact to oil prices will be felt long before then if we start a serious effort now. Interesting fact: The main suppliers of oil to the U.S. are -- Canada (1.68 million barrels/day), Saudi Arabia (1.49 million barrels/day), Venezuela (1.46 million barrels/day), and Mexico (1.35 million barrels/day). So, yeah, we get most of our oil from Mexico and South America, but the Saudi Arabian piece is pretty damn big (what is that, 25%?), so any small decrease in our demand for that oil will significantly impact Saud's revenue. It's absolutely ridiculous that the world's economy is at the mercy of these dictatorships (or whatever) in the middle east.

While I disagree that the war was motivated by oil, I doubt much of the world would have any interest in the region whatsoever if it didn't have such vital reserves (see Africa). But that's the way it is. Oil is the world's economic engine, so either we change that or we change the region. I think we know which strategy Bush has chosen.

TV watched:

1) Last ten minutes of the BC vs. ND b-ball game. ND beats undefeated BC by shutting down BC's Smith and stealing a lot of passes. It's not quite revenge for the Pats beating the Steelers, but for me it's close.

2) The Amazing Race finale. This show is boring, but I wanted to see which couple would win. The final three were (from CBS.com): 1) Freddy & Kendra - Engaged Models, 2) Kris & John - Dating Long Distance, and 3) Adam & Rebecca - Formerly Dating. What is this, Couples Counseling? These people are defined by their dating history. How sad. I couldn't tell one guy from the other, except for Adam's annoying horn haircut, and Freddy's giant eyeglasses. Basically, the teams that book the fastest flights and get the best taxi drivers are the ones that end up winning. Yawn. I'd be terrible at this game because I would have to take detours for my shits.

3) Scrubs. Good episode. JD tries to impress a girl on their first date by paying a homeless guy to fake a heart attack so he can save him. Tara Reid and her deformed breasts show up for some cigarette smoking and generally poor acting. I liked the opening bit with JD's outfit. It's true: on occassion, guys will spend just as much time as girls in choosing the right clothes. I know this because I've been on PLENTY of dates and let me tell you... oh, shut up.